Famous Quotes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind.
I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.
Five guys on the court working together can achieve more than five talented individuals who come and go as individuals.
Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.
I tell kids to pursue their basketball dreams, but I tell them to not let that be their only dream.
I think someone should explain to the child that it´s OK to make mistakes. That´s how we learn. When we compete, we make mistakes.
I´ve had enough success for two lifetimes, my success is talent put together with hard work and luck.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Quotes
A team will always appreciate a great individual if he´s willing to sacrifice for the group.
I listen to jazz mainly. Mainstream jazz.
All the courage and competitiveness of Jackie Robinson affects me to this day. If I patterned my life after anyone it was him, not because he was the first black baseball player in the majors but because he was a hero.
Center is a very tough position to play.
Fundamental preparation is always effective. Work on those parts of your game that are fundamentally weak.
I have been coaching recently. I coached high school basketball in Arizona, and I hope that more opportunities become available.
I expect more people from China and Asia to end up in the NBA.
I didn´t really seek attention. I just wanted to play the game well and go home.
I think race has been a burden for black Americans. Being Muslim has also been a challenge because so many people do not understand Islam.
I think black Americans expect too much from individual black Americans in terms of changing the status quo.
I feel that there has been progress made since I was a boy on matters of race, but we have a long way to go.
As a parent, I have a job as a role model to my children, and by extension, to other young people.
Black people don´t have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted.
As brilliant an individual that Michael Jordan was, he was not successful until he got with a good team unit.
I felt that a number of people might have questioned my loyalty, but I continue to be a patriotic American.
I hope to be involved in a successful movie script.
I saw Islam as the correct way to live, and I chose to try to live that way.
I think the NBA players have to be held accountable in a reasonable way, just like any other professionals.
I think I did very well against everyone who tried to defend me.
Quotes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
I´m not comfortable being preachy, but more people need to start spending as much time in the library as they do on the basketball court.
In athletics there´s always been a willingness to cheat if it looks like you´re not cheating. I think that´s just a quirk of human nature.
The extra pass and the extra effort on defense always get the job done.
You can´t win if you don´t play as a unit.
When the line started to blur between the fans and the players, sometimes things can get ugly.
My choosing Islam was not a political statement; it was a spiritual statement.
The game has basically not changed since I ended my career.
I wanted to play baseball!
My most memorable moment came in 1985 as we beat the Boston Celtics.
My mother had to send me to the movies with my birth certificate, so that I wouldn´t have to pay the extra fifty cents that the adults had to pay.
Michael Jordan and Magic and myself all learned how to play the game in college programs that emphasized the team.
I´m still my parent´s child, I´m still me, but I made a choice. I evolved into . I think it has to do with evolution.
You can´t win unless you learn how to lose.
You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go… Don´t ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body.
When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That´s a terrible burden.
I´m not going to disappear.
I would suggest that teachers show their students concrete examples of the negative effects of the actions that gangsta rappers glorify.
It´s hard for young players to see the big picture. They just see three or four years down the road.
Your mind is what makes everything else work.
Jackie Robinson, as an athlete and as someone who was trying to make a stand for equality, he was exemplary.
One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.
When we went up against teams that were better, I just hoped that we could steal the victories.
If they took the idea that they could escape poverty through education, I think it would make a more basic and long-lasting change in the way things happen. What we need are positive, realistic goals and the willingness to work. Hard work and practical goals.
The first time I shot the hook, I was in fourth grade, and I was about five feet eight inches tall. I put the ball up and felt totally at ease with the shot. I was completely confident it would go in and I´ve been shooting it ever since.
I try to do the right thing at the right time. They may just be little things, but usually they make the difference between winning and losing.
The transition was difficult. It´s hard to stop something that you´ve enjoyed and that has been very rewarding.